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278                  MODERN  GERMAN  LITERATURE

woman, however beautiful she may be, repels; she is safe, but
abandoned.

With Binding as a neo-classic stands RUDOLF ALEXANDER SCHRO-
DER (1878- ), a Bremen man; or rather, since in his earlier years
he uses Greek metres, he is a neo-Hellenist. Schroder has con-
siderable historical importance; for instance, as co-founder of the
journal Die Insel\ and he has in recent years been loaded with
honours from all quarters. He swept all before him when3 as the
greater poets of his generation passed away, he continued his mass
production and established himself as a facile translator: Homrs
Odjssee, K)io'9DieIlias, 1943; Virgil's Hirtengedichte, 1924; Horace's
poems, 1935; also translations of Shakespeare, Pope, Aubrey
Beardsley, T. S. Eliot; translations of Moliere and Racine and of
Dutch and Flemish classics. Above all he is recognized, after his
rebuilding of the hymnal lyric of Paul Gerhardt and Paul Fleming,
as - literally - the laureate of the Protestant community. His more
personal lyric work ranges from Unmut (1899), Ueder an eine Ge-
liebte (1900), 'Elysium (1905), Gesammelte Gedichte (1912), Deutsche
Oden (1914; patriotic verse, with a note of warning in the fear of
war), Heilig Vaterland(\<)\^\ weak war verse) to the religious verse
of Widmungen undOpfer (1925), with its turning to a Protestant
mood, Mitte desluebens (1930), Die'Ballade vom Wandersmann (1937),
Der Mann unddasjahr (1946), Weihnachtslieder (1947), Alten Mannes
Sommer (1947). Die mltiichen Gedichte (1940) collects his secular
poetry, Diegeistlichen Gedichte (1950) his religious verse. The story
of his youth is told in Der Wanderer und die Heimat (1931) and Aus
Kindheit undjugend (1934). His attitude to religion is enunciated in
Zur Naturgeschichte des Glaubens (1936), while Dichtung und Dicbter
derKirche (1936) has importance for hymnology. Aufsat^e md^eden
(1939) deal with translation problems and include essays on Hof-
mannsthal, Rilke, Binding, and other friends of his. As a neo-
Hellenist and translator R. A. Schroder has a rival in THASSILO
VON SCHEFFER (1873-1951): Aristophanes, 1924; Hesiods sdmtliche
Werke, 1940; Virgil's Aeneis, 1943; Homer's Ijias, 1947 andO^r^,
1948; Ovid's Metamorphosen^ 1948. There is a fund of Greek
scholarship in his re-creations of Greek myth and legend: Die
Kyprien (1934; in smooth hexameters) and the prose volumes
Helleniscbe Mystemn undOrakel (1940), Griechische Sagen (1947). His
lyric work (Die Gedichte, 1947; Das lyrische Werk, 4 vols., 1947)
reaches post-war poignancy in Wende und Wandlung (1947).